The Voice of the Lucky Charms Leprechaun Has Died at 93

Arthur Anderson, the actor behind one of television's most famous mascots, has died at 93, the New York Times reports. Anderson was known for working with Orson Welles and appearing on Broadway, but his most memorable character was the mischievous leprechaun in the Lucky Charms cereal commercials.

Anderson voiced Lucky the Leprechaun from 1963 to 1992, though sorry to ruin your childhood, but his Irish accent was fake. He was actually from Staten Island, NY, and his parents were from Denmark and England. He started his showbiz career when he was just 12, playing an orphan in a radio show in 1935. He then starred on Broadway alongside Orson Welles, an experience that would be dramatized in the 2009 movie Me and Orson Welles; Zac Efron played a version of Anderson.

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In 1963, he tried out for the Lucky role with an advertising agency, and got the part that became his calling card. Nobody asked him if he was Irish at the time, not even the president of General Mills. "I never got free cereal," he told ABC News in 2005. "But they gave me lots of green money. And it was a fun character to play. Hardly a day goes by when somebody doesn't ask me to sing the Lucky Charms jingle, and I'm proud of that."

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Currently, the voice of Lucky the Leprechaun is voiceover artist Doug Preis, though the character has also been voiced by actor Jason Graae.